RitualFirst day of the Auckland Writer and Readers festival and for me, was accompanied by my first ever author interview. Aahhhh! Scary yes, but did I ever strike it lucky, Oh yeah baby!! I got to interview Mo Hayder, an author famed for her horrifically, violent book titles but in person funny, friendly, self-effacing and incredibly tolerant of a certain librarian masquerading as a newshound.

Just off the plane after the hideous longhaul from the UK, Mo looked fresh as a daisy and while claiming jet lag was still infinitly smarter than your average bear. She talked in depth about women and the crime genre and her future plans for the Caffrey series but more of that later…


I was interested to know what Mo read as a child and was amazed to discover she too had been force-fed a diet of Enid Blyton, the staple of yesteryear but had actually enjoyed the Mallory Towers series. Not an avid reader she’d presented a challenge to her English teacher mother, who after failing with Austen and Bronte presented Mo with Kafka’s Metamorphosis, initially sceptical Mo said “not more of your rubbish” but was hooked from the first line.

I also got to ask Mo’s six-year-old daughter Lotte what her favourite authors were and discovered she likes Jacqueline Wilson, Roald Dahl, Francesca Simon’s Horrid Henry series, Lauren Child and Babette Cole, oh and something about the Queen’s Knickers. We also mused on the current publishing trend for scatalogical humour in childrens picture books, something that Mo supports, bring on the poo jokes was her stance!
Although Mo has no strong memories of using libraries in her childhood split between the London suburbs and the States, her family are now great fans of the public library and frequently use their local library which Mo characterised as “a real chill out area”.
So while Mo has still to give her an” Hour with Mo Hayder” festival talk on Sunday afternoon I’m still on my own hour with Mo Hayder high!

Find books by Mo Hayder in the library catalogue.

Read Joyce’s interview with Mo on the library website